A Little Girl's Wish - The Doll I Never Had : Toys On Hive - First Contest - Christmas Toys

Doll are small replicas of humans used by children as toys. They come in many sizes, shapes and colors. For a little girl, a doll represents a smaller version of herself and are usually in the female gender. Some models represent adults, while others represent babies, toddlers, or teens.

Every little girl wants a doll of her very own for Christmas. It's an item that she can play with, have as a companion, show off to her friends, and keep on display, or perhaps save for when she is older as a keepsake.

For many little girls, the chance to own a doll never materializes. Through no fault of their own, they don't get the chance to hold one and admire its beauty.

Such was the case with me. I was six years old, and I wanted a doll for Christmas. But I didn't want any doll, I wanted the newest doll that had just been made available to the world: Barbie Doll.

Barbie was the talk of everyone I knew. She was touted as the most beautiful thing imaginable.

^{Image by Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay}

I was the fifth child in a family of seven children. We were not well off. In fact, in terms of having monetary possessions, we were considered poor. What we did have was enough to eat for our family.

However, the funds we did have covered utilities and other necessities such as clothes and family personal items. With five girls, that meant we got the necessities. Needs first; wants later or never. A doll was one of those items that was viewed as a luxury and not affordable. Besides, if my mom purchased one, she'd had to purchase four more.

So, us five girls got together and used some old-fashioned ingenuity. We made our own dolls from material we already had.

The doll was made from three items:

• a Coke bottle;
• straw, and
• a piece of wood.

We placed the straw inside the Coke bottle to simulate hair. To make it stay in place, we added a small piece of wood that we cut to make straw stay in place.

The result was amazing. The Coke bottle gave the impression of a shapely figure. We could then cut the straw the length we wanted for the hair.

Finally, if we wanted our doll to have bangs in the front, we would add another piece of straw. Somehow we colored the straw. I don't remember how we did it. We were imaginative my friends and sisters. We didn't have extra cloth to make doll clothes, so we just played everyday with our doll. We were proud of our creations.

We were only limited by our imagination. It was a unique time in our lives in which we knew we weren't able to have what other little girls did, but we didn't complain. We just let our creativity flow.

Once I had my own girls, they also wanted a Barbie doll. That was my chance to relive my childhood. But we got an added surprise. Mattell, Inc. decided to market their wildly popular franchise doll to little girls of other races. I was able to purchase African American barbie Dolls for my girls. But I didn't stop there.

To teach them diversity, I purchased other races as well. We would go to the library and check out books of the countries and discuss why the dolls look like they do.

I purchased numerous Barbie Dolls over the years with different outfits. Some were packaged as kits with accessories. However, they wanted to really play with them. My girls would remove their arms and legs, leave them in the bathtub, mangle their hair or just comb it until their dolls were bald. I can say they truly enjoyed them. The clothes were a bit expensive also.

I was so disappointed about the condition in which their dolls were left in that I decided to purchase some for myself.

That's when I started collecting Anniversary Edition of Barbie Dolls each year they were introduced in retail.

Next, I started buying the Special Edition Barbie Doll Collections for special occasions. One of these dolls was produced when Star Wars was popular. My entire collection is stored away in my attic. I have included here copies of special Barbie Dolls that are designed for for those special occasions.

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My collection grew over the years to the point that about fifteen years ago, I stopped collecting. I had so many other antiques and collectibles, I didn't have room to keep them indoors. However, I must take them down and see if any are damaged from fluctuating temperatures.

Now, I'll purchase one if it's a monumental special occasion such as emulating a new Disney movie character.

Yesterday, I couldn't believe I actually found a complete Barbie Doll set in my granddaughter's closet that looked pretty decent from last Christmas. I was amazed she still had the original box. She loves the salon version of dolls. I bought her another one this Christmas, but she took it home. I didn't get a chance to take a photo of it:

I hope you like my Christmas toy wish. What toy for Christmas did you receive or purchase as a gift? If you'd like to participate in this new Community on Hive created by Hive account@livinguktaiwan, then check out her contest post. You can find the link above.

Contest Rules

• use the tag #christmastoys

• all entries must be in English but you can post in dual language

• add a comment to this post with a link to your entry post to make sure we don't miss it

• the closing date is 4th January 2021

• you don't have to post from the Toys on Hive community, but if you do, you could get support from OCD under the Community Incubation Programme

• original content only, no plagiarism

• Winnings: Prize pool
  25 Hive - First prize
  10 Hive - Second prize
  5 Hive - Third prize